earticle

영어

The main purpose of this study is to compare the regional disparities between in Korea since 1990s when local autonomy started and in China since 2000s when balanced regional development policy launched. This research identifies six dimensions of regional disparity of population, local economy, local finance, human capital, public environment & facilities, and social class. Based on six dimensions, 13 indices are developed for actual data comparisons for both Korea and China. The geographical units to measure regional disparities are seven different units for Korea and six for China. First, upper-level local governments, regions, metropolitan areas, non-metropolitan areas are employed to measure Gini-coefficient. Second, two regions are compared for 'Youngnam' vs. 'Honam', Capital region and Non-capital region, Metropolitan regions and Non-metropolitan regions in Korea, and for 'Sandung' vs. 'Jeojang', coastal regions vs. inland regions in China. The result of comparison shows that while regional disparities exist in both nations, there are many differences in the nature and location of regional disparities. Overall, Chinese regional disparity was greater than in Korea.